Judging Intimacies at the French Court of Asylum

Abstract

Some legal scholars have asserted that rigid notions of homosexual identity shape adjudicators' approach when evaluating asylum claims based on sexual orientation. Recent ethnographic research at the French Court of Asylum, in charge of reviewing appeals on decisions from the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons, shows indeed that adjudication is based on particular gender stereotypes. However, my analysis centers on an unexplored but related issue: the relationship between the problems raised by adjudicators when facing what they call "intimacy cases," specifically regarding the administration of proof and stereotyped performances. Through ethnographic data drawn from encounters with adjudicators and asylum seekers at the French Court of Asylum; through interviews with judges, rapporteurs (reporters), interpreters, and lawyers; and by examining 60 court rulings, I argue that sexual orientation-based cases crystallize the importance of intimacy in the politics of asylum, helping to seize the new shapes of the refugee as well as the growing difficulties for judges in relying on material evidence. [asylum, sexual orientation, intimacy, proof, France]One morning in July 2010, in the Cour nationale du droit d'asile (French Court of Asylum) in Montreuil near Paris, the last case to be heard was that of a Kosovar claimant of Albanian origin. The courtroom had been cleared as the claimant's lawyer requested a hearing in camera, behind closed doors. The asylum seeker and the three judges allowed me to remain in the room, seated in the public gallery, in my capacity as researcher. The rapporteur (reporter), a civil servant of the court in charge of examining the case in detail, was seated sideways between the board of judges and the claimant.She provided a summary of the facts: The applicant, whom I call here Mr. Afrim, 1 claimed to have been persecuted in Kosovo owing to his sexual orientation; he stated that he became aware of his homosexuality and had a sporadic secret relationship with a neighbor; that he always hid his sexual orientation from his family; that he was the victim of insults and mockery on the part of the villagers due to his celibacy; that his parents put pressure on him to marry as soon as possible; that at a family gathering he was violently cast out by a cousin who publicly accused him of being homosexual and threatened to kill him in order to preserve the family's honor; that in

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